"This is a diseased century. We diagnosed the disease and its causes with microscopic exactness, but wherever we applied the healing knife a new sore appeared. Our will was hard and pure, we should have been loved by the people. But they hate us. Why are we so odious and detested?
We brought you truth, and in our mouth it sounded a lie. We brought you freedom, and it looks in our hands like a whip. We brought you the living life, and where our voice is heard the trees wither and there is a rustling of dry leaves. We brought you the promise of the future, but our tongue stammered and barked..."
-from Darkness at Noon by Arthur Koestler

I'm no so much scared at my past, at all. I should be more scared at room/home 908 at Holiday Inn Charleston, WV. I packed a suitcase full of clothes (which have been cleaned more times in two weeks than probably ever before), but damn man, I need a filing cabinet. So much work. So much work. Leisure? please? tomorrow.



Screw the economy, I'm hiring for upper management and it sucks to find.

synertia00: haha, yeah, you're a pretty low key guy, and don't like trouble much



This song scares me more than Frankie Teardrop and Hamburger Lady combined:

It's the toy horse's narration that I find extremely unsettling.

VOMIT OF EVIL!

The empire strikes back

In recent weeks, we've taken huge steps towards blocking spam accounts on LiveJournal. In fact, we've suspended as many as 30,000 accounts in a single day! We've implemented several pre-emptive measures to prevent the creation of spam accounts, and we've honed our detection of suspicious content. Spam bots are a crafty lot, so we'll continue to refine our tactics and keep up the good fight to keep you safe from spam attacks on LiveJournal.

RSS feeds again

If you're addicted to xkcd_rss, icanhaschzbrgr, or other syndicated feeds, we're pleased to report that we've resolved the update error that was mucking up your RSS feeds. While content was being pulled correctly, it wasn't being posted to the feeds themselves. Late last week, we finally nailed down what we hope was the root problem, so content should post properly. We thank you for your patience.

Wii have killer CSI Deadly Intent contests!

c_s_i

If you're a gamer who loves CSI, have Wii got news for you! c_s_i is sponsoring killer contests. Simply post a question to a member of the CSI crew. The winner will get a free copy of CSI: Deadly Intent for Nintendo Wii (with a retail value of $39.99) and get their question answered by a member of the CSI writing team! There's also a fantastic monthly contest. To enter, join c_s_i, play the online version of CSI: Deadly Intent, and respond to a two-part query for a chance to win a Wii! Entries will be judged on composition and originality. Sorry, but you must be a U.S. resident and over 18 years old to participate. Check out the rules here.

Enveloped in postcards

Last week, we asked you to send in postcards to help us decorate our drab concrete walls. Here's a photo of the results so far! Thank you so much and please keep them coming! You can mail them to Frank the Goat, Esq., c/o LiveJournal, Inc., 539 Bryant Street, Suite 210, San Francisco, CA 94107. Be sure to include your username, since we'll be giving ten random users paid account credits.

Photos of the week

If you haven't visited our new LiveJournal photo community, you're in for an amazing visual trip. LiveJournal users from around the world will take you on a scenic journey to everywhere. Post your own pictures or kick back and enjoy at lj_photophile. You can view some of this week's awesome photos after the jump. Please start tagging with geographic location, since we'd like to track all the places around the world represented in this community. Keep on commenting too!
( Read more... )

What if murder was like sex, and you could get killed multiple times, and it was a big deal to lose your murder virginity, and there were dumb movies about teens trying to get killed by others for that purpose? You can parallel the two concepts endlessly.

I didn't expect Deeds to win Virginia. No big deal; Virginia has been voting against the party of the incumbent President since the seventies. I'm not too concerned with New Jersey, either. That just wasn't an interesting election for anyone, and Apathy is good, very good, for conservatives, as I've seen noted a lot tonight.

But Maine, Washington, you guys better strike the progressive blow for Gay Rights. I don't mind losing Gubernatorial and Presidential races. I don't even mind losing them repeatedly. (It's nice, in a way, to be in the political minority.) Gay Rights, on the other hand, is not a fight we can keep losing, and you guys are on the front right now.


On a note of principle: making a ballot measure out a civil rights issue is dangerous. Majority rule shouldn't be the deciding factor when civil rights are involved. Masses are too fickle, manipulable, and bigoted.

Edit: Fuckin' Maine.

I went as a "space bastard" for Halloween. trash bag, tablecloth, leather jacket underneath, and space helmet:


My space helmet had "I took a shit on the moon" , "Listen bitch, I go to space" , "Space titties" and "I'm a bastard" written on it. We went to a strange party in Asheville that required the entrance password phrase "cobra skull". I was told by Daniel to hit on women by saying horrible space-related things like "you wanna fly my spaceship, bitch?" but so many people were intrigued by the mystery of space bastard that I didn't even need to approach anyone. I claimed to be responsible for the two deadly shuttle explosions, as well as Apollo 13. A physical fight nearly took place later between Devin and Daniel over the talent of Darius Rucker. Forrest and I tried to put a stop to the impending violence while Robbie drank raw eggs out of a mason jar. Everybody calmed down and we watched the music video for "Party in the USA" because it's "the greatest song of the 21st century" - Devin. I couldn't find a pillow at Forrest's house, so I stuffed the space bastard helmet with clothes and used it as a makeshift one. He also shut off the water to his toilet, so I had to keep walking to McDonalds to use their facilities. It was all good, and I think the space bastard will return.

"In April, 1933, Tanzler removed Hoyos’ body from the mausoleum, carted it through the cemetery after dark on a toy wagon, and transported it to his home. Tanzler attached the corpse’s bones together with wire and coat hangers, and fitted the face with glass eyes. As the skin of the corpse decomposed, Tanzler replaced it with silk cloth soaked in wax and plaster of paris. As the hair fell out of the decomposing scalp, Tanzler fashioned a wig from Hoyos’ hair that had been collected by her mother and given to Tanzler not long after her burial in 1931. Tanzler filled the corpse’s abdominal and chest cavity with rags to keep the original form, dressed Hoyos’ remains in stockings, jewelry, and gloves, and kept the body in his bed. Tanzler also used copious amounts of perfume, disinfectants, and preserving agents, to mask the odor and forestall the effects of the corpse’s decomposition.



In October, 1940, Elena’s sister Florinda heard rumors of Tanzler sleeping with the disinterred body of her sister, and confronted Tanzler at his home, where Hoyos’ body was eventually discovered."

So this is what corporate work feels like. Busy 12 hour days and keep your head above the free booze as much as humanly possible. I really don't mind West Virginia as much as I thought I would. It's fun to explore on my bike and yea, the views are nice, as well. Got news tonight that I may end up in Florida by x-mas with a promotion if I continue to do the sort of job performance I am currently. Nice. Greensboro's not looking that great compaired to the things I'm undertaking here. The friends, the booze, the "college life" isn't all that appealing anymore, or at least not on the level that it was. People seem so irresponsible, so young? Or may be I simply pissed the whole city off. Probably the latter and I love it.

"Have you ever wanted to wade through a waist-deep pond of blood and guts?
-Orville Wright

My hands smell like bacon for some reason; it's hard not to eat them.

In response to user comments from last week, we want to let you know that we'll remain LJ cut-free for the next month in order to get more eyeballs on our evolving newsletter. As for product coverage, that continues to be our top priority. For more granular detail, however, we recommend you join lj_releases.

Super-tweak for Yandex search

Some of our beta testers expressed privacy concerns using the Yandex search engine. Here's why: Last week, when you ran a search, you could see the usernames (and only the usernames) of everyone who commented on an entry, even if that entry was switched to Private or Friends Only after it was originally indexed. You could NOT see the actual comments from Friends Only or Private posts. In response to your input, we've implemented a fix to keep all user activity currently marked Friends Only or Private completely hidden. If you'd prefer your public content not to be indexed by Yandex, click here and use the settings labeled Search Inclusion (this covers your entire journal) and/or Comment Search Inclusion (which covers comments only). To test drive Yandex search now, click here.

Postcards from the edge

Several years ago, we asked LiveJournal users to send postcards to help us decorate our dull, white-washed offices. Since a good idea warrants repetition, we're at it again (same issue, new address). We hope you'll surround us with LiveJournal love by sending your postcards to Frank the Goat, Esq., c/o LiveJournal, Inc., 539 Bryant Street, Suite 210, San Francisco, CA 94107. We'll post snapshots right here. Be sure to include your username, since we'll randomly pick 10 lucky recipients to win free paid account time.

Conquer Writer's Block

Here are some excerpts from this week's most popular question of the day:

If a friend or relative makes a racist or homophobic remark, do you tend to confront them or let it slide? Are you more likely to confront them if it offends you directly or someone else who seems reluctant to speak up?

1. I find it easier to stand up for other people, and i wouldn't let it slide if they made a rude or hurtful comment.
2. Usually if a friend makes a racist or homophobic remark, I tend to let it slide. I think that while i would not say such things myself, I have no right to censor those around me.
3. This happens all of the time. I confront some relatives, but I refuse to if they are drunk or watch Fox News.
4. I'd let it slide if it was just a private remark... As much as I despise bigotry and intolerance, I know that you can't change people-they have to change themselves ...
5. Confront! confront! confront! Politely, but without equivocation.
6. SPEAK UP. Always, always, always speak up. Letting something slide lets ignorance win. No matter if it offends me directly, or someone else, I will confront the speaker and let them know that's not ok.
7. I don't get offended personally. As an immigrant, woman, gay and person of color if I took every single potentially offensive remark seriously I wouldn't get anything done.
8. I punch them in the balls. With my mind.
9. I do speak up, but often very timidly because I feel that I'm white and therefore I don't really have any authority to lecture someone on what's racist and what isn't...
10. Generally speaking, I do not let this shit fly, because it reduces me as a person, to this non-person and it replicates the destructive discourse that makes sure that sexual minorities, racial minorities, women, people with disabilities, trans people and every intersection thereof into something other than human... And sometimes... I'm just too tired to deal with it, so I roll my eyes, make a sarcastic remark and hope the conversation moves on quickly.

For more daily questions and user comments, join writersblock. FYI, we don't want to invade your privacy, so we haven't credited individual users for their responses. We'd appreciate your feedback on this!

Spotlight community of the week

We can't resist making one last midnight trip to the ol' pumpkin patch. If you adore crazy costumes, fiendish festivities, and bottomless candy consumption as much as we do, this community has just what it takes to light up your jack-o-lantern.


halloween_fan

Photos of the week

We received so many incredible photos, we had to close our eyes and point. We uploaded a selection of awesome images at our new lj_photophile community. Please join and start posting (try to keep the width at around 625 for the sake of consistency)! We'd love for you to tell us more about your photos! You can help us select spotlight photos by commenting on your favorites. Once again, we thank you for making our online world more beautiful!

shutter	pancetta	ilya_gorokhov

Curtains

Thanks, again, for tuning in. We look forward to seeing you next week.

synertia00: there was literally nothing better to do than to put shaving cream and a tophat on, then sit in a bathtub

It's been fun, Greensboro.

but haha

stupid folk always really get in to Halloween.



party in the USA.